Pie of the Summer: Stockholm Pie & General Store Named Top Pie shop in America – Crust Ya!

It all started with Janet Garrison, “Your Pieness,” inviting her brother, Alan Nugent, and his husband, Steve to dinner back in 2004. As the group sat down to indulge in a flakey dessert, their forks paused from a shared admiration: that this apple dumpling Garrison made was “filling awesome.”

The group then proceeded to joke about the idea, “we could sell these things,” Nugent said. Conveniently, Garrison’s brother and brother-in-law had just purchased an 8,000-square-foot building, with a 400-square-foot section on one side, making it the perfect “slice” to start a pie business.

Stockholm Pie & General Store was founded in 2008, housed on Great River Road in Stockholm, Wis., with 80% of customers coming from the Twin Cities, according to Nugent.

Nugent lives by the mantra: “You live out loud.” Nugent said he does this by being open about the shop’s inclusivity.

“Our staff is everything from married couples to transgender folks, to gay couples, bisexual, every single person here is accepted,” Nugent said. “Part of the rule is if you’re going to work here, you need to be accepting and welcoming.”

What started as a 400-square-foot slice in a 120-year-old building now takes up all 8,000 square feet and holds not only a new kitchen but also events, tastings and pie flights, according to Nugent.

“It’s not just pie,” Nugent said. “People are coming here for us, this whole experience of a little step back in time, a little step back away from everyday life and into something very different, reminiscent of what they felt as a child at Grandma’s house, with what their mom’s pie was like.”

According to a recent USA Today awards poll, Stockholm Pie & General Store won the reader’s choice award for best pie shop in the United States on July 19, 2024.

The shop’s greatest challenge is not having enough employees, Nugent said. The business will be experimenting with new models in the coming year, hoping to accommodate customers while not overworking their staff.

Nostalgia is in the air: The General Store, the other half

Upon walking into the store, customers are greeted with an ordering counter and a three-tiered glass case housing a variety of pies, yet behind the large doorway is where the nostalgia lives.

“The general store is filled with nostalgia,” Nugent said. “There’s nostalgic candies and kids’ toys without a single battery in them, playing to the comfort and nostalgia that is pie.”

Before working at the pie shop, Nugent was an interior designer and helped design homes. Nugent said he is “very particular” about the store’s presentation, aiming for a modern take on nostalgia.

“The store really has the feeling of something from the past, but it’s also really playful and fun and is a great place for kids,” Nugent said. “Of course, we see a ton of seniors that come in for the nostalgia, but we see a ton of families that are bringing their kids in for the whole experience, not just the pie.”

The menu: fan favorites, flavor profiles and seasonal slices

The element that separates a delicious pie from a good pie? The crust. Now retired, Garrison, who was a pastor’s wife in rural Kansas, learned the recipe from someone at her church. The crust is being made “to this day” the same way she learned it, Nugent added.

With a typical rotation of 25-30 different pie flavors available for slices on weekends, any pie-goer can find a slice that suits their palette.

According to Nugent, their best-selling pie is the coconut cream pie — embodying notes of vanilla, coconut rum and lightly toasted coconut, this pie is sure to win a cherry on top.

The best-selling fruit pie is the bumbleberry pie (not the pollinator type), which has a plethora of berries, including strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries in a flaky double crust (try saying that one with a mouthful of pie!).

Every fall, Stockholm Pies has a pumpkin pie flight which sells out every year, according to Nugent.

“The part that still amazes me is we’re 80 miles from anywhere any real population, and these pie flights, there are 24 tickets for a flight, with three-quarters of those tickets being people from the Twin Cities,” Nugent said. “It’s heartwarming and astonishing to see the love that people have given this place.”